Former senator Leila de Lima yesterday tagged former President Rodrigo Duterte as the “mastermind” of the bloody anti-drug campaign during his administration that reportedly resulted in the deaths of about 7,000 persons.

“There is no doubt in my mind that former president Rodrigo Duterte was the mastermind as he was the instigator and inducer of the drug war killings,” De Lima said in Monday’s hearing of the House Committee on Human Rights into the previous administration’s alleged crimes against humanity.

“The drug war was implemented as an official Duterte program of government when he assumed office as president,” De Lima told the committee.

De Lima asserted that the war against illegal drugs was an official program during Duterte’s watch, implemented through “Oplan Double Barrel,” a documented operational plan of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

She was among the resource speakers invited to the hearing, along with former PNP chief Oscar Albayalde, who served as one of the chief architects of Duterte’s bloody drug war.

Based on government data, approximately 7,000 people were killed in Duterte’s anti-narcotics operations or “Oplan Tokhang” from 2016 to 2022.

Local and international human rights organizations, however, estimated that the death toll exceeded 30,000, affecting predominantly low-income families and communities.

According to De Lima, the systematic attack on civilians during the anti-drug operations is considered a crime against humanity under international humanitarian law.

“The 2016 to 2022 drug war is a mere offshoot of the DDS experience in Davao,” she said. “What happened was that the systematic [EJKs] perpetrated by then mayor Duterte and the PNP of Davao were replicated at the national level when Duterte assumed the presidency.”